Is this good or bad?

During the month of April I signed a contract to have a new deck built on the back of my house. This deck will have a barbeque area, and a screened-in porch along with doors and dog doors so the dog can go to the back yard and do his thing (barking at squirrels and birds). (I only have one dog now, but that story saddens me too much to write). Simultaneoulsy I contracted with the same company to put in a new sliding door. These aren't simple tasks, but the work doesn't require a college degree, or so I thought. It is September, the second installation of the sliding door has just been finished - but there is still some touch up. The deck has been under construction for 3.5 weeks and they are still at least a week from finishing. The workers are nice, they have green cards, their manager is out-to-lunch. It is very apparent that the company has taken on too many tasks and they are struggling to get all the jobs done. There are days that no one shows up to work on the deck. No phone call and the excuses are unbelieveable (The lead carpenter had to take his kids to school so none of the workers wanted to show up). In reality the builders are running to other jobs to help people who scream louder than my wife. Yesterday, the main water line running into the house sprung a leak. Luckily I have insurance for that so the $15,000+ replacement effort will cost me $3.50 a month for another year. The cable for TV and computer has a degraded signal, the company will have to replace all the cable from the street to the house. And the deck builders cut a wire to the back porch light and didn't bother to tell me. That $800 repair (it cost a lot to have someone show up at the house at 10PM) will be charged to the deck company. The builders knew they cut the wire and I found out about it when I called the company to complain about their lack of progress. "Didn't they tell you they cut the wire? They told me?" It has been an extremely frustrating week and I haven't even mentioned the older brother and his inheritance check.

Truth in advertising

I came across the following bargain as I was looking for my next scuba diving trip:

"scuba diving trip aboard the Utila Aggressor July 26 - Aug 2, 2008. $1700 Retail value $2195 Air Fare NOT included; additional $370 plus tips due on board at end of charter. "

The trip normally costs $2195. This special says it only costs $1700, but you have to pay an additional $370 at the end of the trip- for what?. So the cost is really $2070. Why don't they say that?

The airlines are doing the same thing with their baggage fees. The airline ticket might be $500, but then you have to add $25 for your first bag and $50 for the second. They don't want to add the cost to the ticket because the internet pricing systems will see the tickets costs $575 instead of $500.